AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sybil.” He whispered her name, again disturbing the curl on her forehead. For a moment it held his attention.
“Yes?” Her sweet breath brushed his face.
“Sybil, would you think me overly bold if I said I want to kiss you?”
“Mostly I would think it’s about time.”
He chuckled, delighted at her response, and slowly lowered his head, anxious to claim her lips, but wanting the moment to last forever.
She went up on her toes and met him halfway.
Her lips were warm and welcoming. Sweet as nectar.
He would have lingered, drowning in the million sensations and delights flooding through him, but he didn’t want to frighten her away, so he broke off the kiss and pressed her head to his shoulder.
She sighed.
And he knew satisfaction he’d never before experienced. He wished he could find words to describe it. “I can’t remember ever feeling like this.” It didn’t begin to say what he felt.
“What do you feel?”
“I think...” He swallowed hard, awed by the warm emotions flooding his heart and spreading to his limbs. Could this be love?
If he loved her, he would keep it secret. He didn’t deserve someone like her. “Sybil, I’m just a poor lonely cowboy.”
“Brand, I’m just a poor lonely English girl.”
“Poor?”
“Did you think I was rich?” She leaned back to study him. “I’m not. When my parents died I was left almost penniless.” She paused, her expression filled with questions. “Would it make a difference if I were rich?”
He studied the question. “You deserve a nice house and...”
“And what?”
“Everything that goes with it.” What was the point of going into details? He had nothing. She deserved everything.
“You don’t think I deserve love?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “Doesn’t everyone?” Her voice was low, challenging.
Oh yes. He wanted to believe everyone did. Even a Duggan. “I’m just a cowboy,” he said again.
“And I’m just a girl.”
“Is that enough?”
“Do you want it to be?” She continued to watch him. Even in the silvery moonlight, her gaze probed until he had no defenses.
“Yes.” He pulled her against his shoulder again and tilted his head to rest his cheek on her satiny curls.
She sighed. He imagined a pleased look on her face. One that would match his own.
A fire lit in his heart, warm and bright. But he must take her home before he gave people cause to talk about her. He didn’t care what they said about him. All his life he’d been talked about. But Sybil would never bear that stigma if he had anything to do with it.
He pulled her hand around his elbow and pressed it to his side.
They walked up the hill and paused before the door. She turned, lifted her face to him, her invitation clear. He needed no more and caught her lips in a gentle, chaste kiss, then broke away.
She stepped toward the door. “Good night, cowboy.”
He grinned. “Good night, English girl.”
Not until he reached the bunkhouse did he force the smile from his lips.
It threatened to return the next morning even when he went to work. Eddie asked him to check all the gates, a job that gave him plenty of opportunity to watch the big house.
Twice he saw Mercy carrying water, but he couldn’t see the back of the house until he went to the wintering pens. Then he was able to watch Sybil hanging laundry on the line. The wind billowed her dark blue skirt around her legs, puffed out her white top and pulled pins from her curls until they rioted around her head.
He leaned back on his heels and watched.
She emptied the basket and looked about, scanning the yard to his right.
He waited, wondering if she’d search further. She did, until she found him.
The distance was too great to see her expression, but he didn’t need to. His heart leaped in greeting.
She waved.
He waved back.
Neither of them moved. For sure, he wasn’t going to be the first.
Something caught Sybil’s attention and she turned toward the house, nodded, then picked up the basket, glancing again in his direction before she disappeared out of sight.
At that moment he made up his mind. He’d ask her out for a walk this evening and tell her he loved her.
